Transforming data automatically between communications parties in a computing network

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically transforming data or business messages to enable communication between parties in a distributed computing environment (e.g. between business partners who exchange data over a public network, and who do not necessarily use the same data formats), where this data transformation preferably occurs at the edge of the computing network. A set of transformation services is described, and include template registration, transformation, forward, and receive services. Services from this set may optionally be combined to create composite transformation services. A template defines how to transform one data format into another. Selection criteria may be provided to enable dynamically selecting a template at run-time. Using these services, one business partner simply hands its data off into the network to a network-accessible transformation service, where the data is automatically transformed into a format usable by its business partner and forwarded to that business partner.

1. A method of providing a network-accessible transformation service for automatically transforming data or business messages between communications parties in a computing network, comprising steps of:
 providing, as one part of the network-accessible transformation service, a registration service whereby registration of transformation templates is dynamically requestable, each of the templates specifying how to transform document content from a particular input format to a particular output format; and  
 providing, as another part of the network-accessible service, a transformation service whereby transformation of document content is dynamically requestable, the transformation service being adapted for applying an appropriate transformation template for each requested transformation, the appropriate transformation template being one that specifies how to transform document content from a first input format to a first output format, such that applying the appropriate transformation template creates document content in the first output format.  
 
   
   
     2. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
 providing, as yet another part of the network-accessible transformation service, a forwarding service whereby forwarding of transformed document content is dynamically requestable.  
 
   
   
     3. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
 receiving a registration request, the registration request providing  
 a transformation template to be registered or an address or identifier usable for obtaining such transformation template; and  
 registering, by the registration service, the provided or obtained transformation template, responsive to the receiving step, thereby making the provided or obtained transformation template available for applying in dynamically-requested document content transformations.  
 
   
   
     4. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
 receiving a transformation request, the transformation request providing  
 document content to be transformed or an address or identifier usable for obtaining such document content, and a transrormation template to be used or an address or identifier usable for obtaining such transformation template; and  
 transforming, by the transformation service, the provided or obtained document content, using the provided or obtained transformation template, responsive to the receiving step, thereby creating transformed document content.  
 
   
   
     5. The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the provided identifier usable for obtaining the transformation template, comprises one or more keyword/value pairs which may be used to select one of the transformation templates previously registered by the registration service. 
   
   
     6. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
 receiving a document transformation request, the transformation request providing  
 document content to be transformed or an address or identifier usable for obtaining such document content, and wherein recognition logic will be used to examine the provided or obtained document content in order to select one of the transformation templates previously registered by the registration service; and  
 transforming, by the transformation service, the provided or obtained document content, using the selected transformation template, responsive to the receiving step, thereby creating transformed document content.  
 
   
   
     7. The method according to  claim 2 , further comprising the steps of:
 receiving a forwarding request, the forwarding request providing  
 document content to be forwarded or an address or identifier usable for obtaining such document content and a destination for forwarding the provided or obtained document content; and  
 forwarding, by the forwarding service, the provided or obtained document content to the destination.  
 
   
   
     8. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the step of receiving requests for the registration and/or transformation service, wherein the received service requests are SOAP (“Simple Object Access Protocol”) requests. 
   
   
     9. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the step of receiving requests for the registration and/or transformation service, wherein the received service requests are XML (“Extensible Markup Language”) Protocol requests. 
   
   
     10. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the step of receiving requests for the registration and/or transformation service, wherein availability of the registration and/or transformation service is advertised using UDDI (“Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration”). 
   
   
     11. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the transformation templates are specified using style sheets. 
   
   
     12. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the transformation templates are specified using software programs. 
   
   
     13. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
 receiving requests for the registration and/or transformation service;  
 validating a requester of each received request; and  
 carrying out each received request only if the validating step succeeds.  
 
   
   
     14. A system for providing a network-accessible transformation service for automatically transforming data or business messages between communications parties in a computing network, comprising:
 means for providing, as one part of the network-accessible transformation service, a registration service whereby registration of transformation templates is dynamically requestable, each of the templates specifying how to transform document content from a particular input format to a particular output format; and  
 means for providing, as another part of the network-accessible service, a transformation service whereby transformation of document content is dynamically requestable, the transformation service being adapted for applying an appropriate transformation template for each requested transformation, the appropriate transformation template being one that specifies how to transform document content from a first input format to a first output format, such that applying the appropriate transformation template creates document content in the first output format.  
 
   
   
     15. The system according to  claim 14 , further comprising:
 means for providing, as yet another part of the network-accessible transformation service, a forwarding service whereby forwarding of transformed document content is dynamically requestable.  
 
   
   
     16. A computer program product for providing a network-accessible transformation service for automatically transforming data or business messages between communication parties in a computing network, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer readable media and comprising:
 computer readable program code means for providing, as one part of the network-accessible transformation service, a registration service whereby registration of transformation templates is dynamically requestable, each of the templates specifying how to transform document content from a particular input format to a particular output format; and  
 computer readable program code means for providing, as another part of the network-accessible service, a transformation service whereby transformation of document content is dynamically requestable, the transformation service being adapted for applying an appropriate transformation template for each requested transformation, the appropriate transformation template being one that specifies how to transform document content from a first input format to a first output format, such that applying the appropriate transformation template creates document content in the first output format.  
 
   
   
     17. The computer program product according to  claim 16 , further comprising:
 computer readable program code means for providing, as yet another part of the network-accessible transformation service, a forwarding service whereby forwarding of transformed document content is dynamically requestable.  
 
   
   
     18. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
 providing, as yet another part of the network-accessible transformation service, a receive service whereby receiving of document content is dynamically requestable.  
 
   
   
     19. The method according to  claim 3 , further comprising the step of:
 determining whether a requester from which the received registration request is received is authorized; and  
 wherein the registering step is only performed if the determining step has a positive result.  
 
   
   
     20. The method according to  claim 4 , further comprising the step of:
 determining whether a requester of the received transformation request is received is authorized; and  
 wherein the transforming step is only performed if the determining step has a positive result.  
 
   
   
     21. The method according to  claim 7 , further comprising the step of:
 determining whether a requester from which the received forwarding request is received is authorized; and  
 wherein the forwarding step is only performed if the determining step has a positive result.  
 
   
   
     22. The method according to  claim 18 , further comprising the steps of:
 receiving a receive request, the receive request providing  
 an identifier of a document to be received or an identifier of a creator of such a document;  
 obtaining by the receive service, the document using the provided identifier; and  
 sending, by the receive service, the obtained document to a requester from which the receive request was received.  
 
   
   
     23. The method according to  claim 22 , further comprising the step of:
 determining whether a requester of the received receive request is received is authorized; and  
 wherein the obtaining and sending steps are only performed if the determining step has a positive result.